Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 51
A Prayer for Restoration
For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.(A)
1 Be gracious to me, God,
according to your faithful love;
according to your abundant compassion,
blot out my rebellion.(B)
2 Completely wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.(C)
3 For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.(D)
4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in your sight.(E)
So you are right when you pass sentence;
you are blameless when you judge.(F)
5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born;
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.(G)
6 Surely you desire integrity in the inner self,
and you teach me wisdom deep within.(H)
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.(I)
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.(J)
9 Turn your face away[a] from my sins
and blot out all my guilt.(K)
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma,(A) he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground(B) because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward.(C) And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.(D)
22 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”(E)
God’s Covenant with Noah
9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.(F) 2 The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. 3 Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you;(G) as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.(H) 4 However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.(I) 5 And I will require a penalty for your lifeblood;[a] I will require it from any animal(J) and from any human; if someone murders a fellow human, I will require that person’s life.(K)
6 Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans his blood will be shed,(L)
for God made humans in his image.(M)
7 But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”(N)
11 “I am the good shepherd.(A) The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.(B) 12 The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them[a] and runs away when he sees a wolf(C) coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13 This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father.(D) I lay down my life(E) for the sheep. 16 But I have other sheep(F) that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.(G) 17 This is why the Father loves me,(H) because I lay down my life(I) so that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”(J)
19 Again the Jews were divided(K) because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon(L) and he’s crazy. Why do you listen to him?” 21 Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of someone who is demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (M)
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